BUFFALO, N.Y. — Stefon Diggs, a Bills’ receiver, was a couple steps away from his team’s fumble.
Alex Singleton, a Broncos’ linebacker, was on the other side of the line of scrimmage when the handoff between Buffalo Bills’ quarterback Josh Allen and running back James Cook was botched.
It was no contest. Diggs sauntered to the ball standing up, while Singleton hurtled his body forward and recovered the ball with his arms, chest and will.
The Broncos weren’t recovering fumbles through their 1-4 start, the Jonathon Cooper Coop-n-score in Chicago being the exception. They’ve recovered five opposing fumbles in their last two games, both wins, against the Chiefs and Bills.
Are fumble recoveries about luck? Or being quicker, more aware and wanting it more than the other guy?
“As a whole, I think we just continue to put more emphasis on turnovers,’’ Singleton said in a conference call Tuesday with the Denver media. “I think that was our Achilles heel even last year. We caused a lot of fumbles, but we didn’t get them all. We were in the right positions to get picks; we didn’t get a lot of them. And even earlier this season.
“But people always talk about turnovers come in bunches – it just started to click for us," Singleton said. "I would say when the ball is on the ground, it is definitely half-luck thing and half you’ve got to be willing to sacrifice your body, and I can guarantee I’m going to throw my body into any pile before he ever does.”
Kareem returns
Broncos’ starting safety Kareem Jackson was allowed to return Tuesday – ahead of the team – to the Broncos’ locker room after he served a two-game suspension for what the league deemed was repeated unnecessary blows to the head and shoulder area.
With substitute safety P.J. Locke suffering a left ankle injury in the second quarter Monday, there’s little doubt Jackson will return to the starting lineup, as he has been the first 14 years of his NFL career.
“We’ll sort through how we implement Kareem in the plan,’’ Broncos head coach Sean Payton said Tuesday in a conference call with the Denver media. “We view him as a starter. Veteran player. Extremely smart.’’
No satisfaction
It’s one thing to beat a team. It’s another to beat a team in such a fashion that a coach gets fired in part because of the last disappointing performance.
After the Denver defense forced four turnovers against the Josh Allen-quarterbacked Buffalo Bills offense Monday night, offensive coordinator Ken Dorsey was fired Tuesday morning. The Bills’ offense had been underachieving for a while, in part because it lacked balance. It finally started running the ball, and did so successfully against the Broncos in the second half but too late for Dorsey.
Singleton took no measure of satisfaction that Dorsey lost his job.
“I don’t wish anybody – this league and these jobs are hard enough so I hate when you see a guy go,’’ Singleton said. “It’s never one person’s fault for anything. I think that sucks. Obviously, I’m happy we won but I don’t wish ill on anybody, especially that we play against.”
Bronco Bits
Not only did the Broncos spend parts of four days and three nights in Buffalo over their long football weekend, but a mechanical issue with their plane kept them in their hotel another three hours Tuesday.
“We’ll be back in Denver before Sunday, which will be good,’’ Singleton joked.
The Broncos play the Vikings on Sunday night. …
Payton was more impressed with how his special teams units performed during Marvin Mims’ returns than the “Hurricane” field goal drills. Mims had punt returns of 27 and 17 yards and a 31-yard kickoff return that three times set up midfield-range field position for the Broncos’ offense. For the game, the Broncos’ average starting position was their own 41 yard line; the Bills’ average starting position was their 24.
“A lot's made of the hurry-up field goal,’’ Payton said. “I’ll be honest with you: It’s nothing new and nothing difficult. Players entering the field at an angle where players exiting field don’t run into it. We drill it, we time it. That’s probably one of the first situations teams work on in training camp. I don’t want to say it’s not significant, but it’s nothing new.
“I think those returns we had both in the punt and kick return, our average starting field position was outstanding. And it felt like we played a lot of that game on their end of the field. Those returns were significant. We’ve got to clean up the simple snap, hold, kick.’’
The Broncos will have Sunday off and practice a little longer Thursday, Friday and Saturday in preparation for their game Sunday night on 9NEWS (6:20 p.m. kickoff) against Dalton Risner, Josh Dobbs and the Vikings.
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